On more than one occasion, I’ve told you that this would be the hardest note I’ve had to write in some time, and yet not a single time have you asked why. The simple truth is that I feel like I have failed you.

You have, over the course of the past few months, been my closest confidant. Perhaps that is an indictment on my current volume of confidants, but in all fairness, you have excelled at the position and given me no cause to search for alternatives. I have shared with you things I share with few other people, often including myself. If you had only listened, that would have been enough, but you have counseled and encouraged along the way. Like a boy scout with a campsite, you have left me better than you found me.

Over this same period, you have also shared with me on occasion your frustrations and hopes and fears, and I have done little to repay the favors you have often shown me. Where you were frustrated, I only made you more so. Where you were afraid, I only offered more reasons to fear. In short, any time I was near your campsite, I just threw trash in your fire.

One of my favorite things about you is just how vehemently you will want to protest all of this when you read it. Lately you have been on this kick of telling me I’m a “pretty good guy.” While I certainly appreciate the compliment, I assure you that whatever you see in me is simply the after effects of you leaving me a little better than you found me.

You are, by nearly everyone’s account, in a class by yourself. There is simply no one like you. You care deeply about doing the right thing. If you have even the tiniest fear that you’re not, it literally makes you sick. That’s a quality that you won’t find in many people, and you can’t imagine how precious it is to folks who are keeping an eye out for that sort of thing.

You are special. I am humbled by the attention, care, and concern you have shown me. While I can’t claim to be a good guy, I am certainly a better man for the time you have spent cleaning up my campsite.

Be well, be safe, be confident. I wish with my whole heart that your journey will soon surround you with people who treasure and appreciate you more than the people you have so graciously served in this now closing chapter of your life ever could.